Home✔Life & style✔CultureSouth East States in Nigeria: List, History & Map

South East States in Nigeria: List, History & Map

Published on

There are five south east states in Nigeria. Keep reading to discover how they came to being and the map of the individual states and the entire southeastern region of Nigeria.

The southeastern part of Nigeria is home to the Igbos, who are one of the 3 major ethnic groups in the country.

Nigeria contains 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Late General Sani Abacha was responsible for grouping those 36 states into geopolitical zones.

Basically, states with similar history and cultural heritage were placed in the same zone. In other words, location was not the only determinant factor for grouping those states.

Southeastern states in Nigeria

The states located in the south eastern region of Nigeria include the following:

The total size of the entire region is 29,388 km2, which is the smallest compared to other geopolitical zones.

Map

map of nigeria indicating states in south east
map of nigeria showing south east states

History of the region

From 1960 to 1963 Nigeria had three regions: Northern region, eastern region and western region. From 1967 to 1976, part of the eastern region became East central state (present day south east nigeria).

In 1976, General Murtala Mohammed created two states from east central state namely Anambra and Imo.

In 1991, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida carved out Enugu from Anambra and Abia from Imo, taking the number of south eastern states to four.

Finally, in 1996 when Abacha came into power, he created Ebonyi state from Enugu, which took to number of states in the southeast region (also known as Igboland) to five.

popular city in the region include Aba, Abakaliki, Enugu, Onitsha, Awka, Owerri, Umuahia, among others.

Latest articles

List of all Art Subjects in Nigerian Secondary Schools

This article provides a list of all the art subjects in Nigerian secondary schools....

Dream Biography: What We Learned From The Minecraft YouTuber’s Face Reveal

Dream, widely tagged the Minecraft legend, is a YouTuber who became famous after uploading...

Airtel Nigeria Data Plans [2022 Update]: Daily, Weekly, & Monthly

As a matter of fact, Airtel Nigeria boasts some of the cheapest data plans...

Coolio: Gangsta’s Paradise Star Passes at 59

The Pennsylvania-born rapper who became popular in the 1990s 'collapsed while spending some time...

More like this

List of all Art Subjects in Nigerian Secondary Schools

This article provides a list of all the art subjects in Nigerian secondary schools....

Dream Biography: What We Learned From The Minecraft YouTuber’s Face Reveal

Dream, widely tagged the Minecraft legend, is a YouTuber who became famous after uploading...

Airtel Nigeria Data Plans [2022 Update]: Daily, Weekly, & Monthly

As a matter of fact, Airtel Nigeria boasts some of the cheapest data plans...